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Posts: 469
Location: Downers Grove, IL | Anyone know the best place to order boat rails? I'm looking for rails about 4 foot in length to set up a couple down easters. Would you recommend Stainless or Aluminum?
Thanks, Thedude |
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| Cabelas has Ranger style rails..I put them on my last Lund...worked great for down easters...
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=00136... |
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| I run a Ranger Cherokee, and have four mounts on the rails and 2 in the stern.
If you can get those rails, they work out very nicely. Oh yeah, I'm using Cabelas rod holders....not sure of the name...but I think that I needed Scotty mounts? They go on with 4 screws in 2 halfs and are easy to put on and take off if you want to. I just leave the brackets on the boat all year. I use stainless, but make sure to not over-tighten the screws and break through the coating. |
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Posts: 380
Location: Il | Check out bulletproof tackle. They can make what you want and good prices. |
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Posts: 374
Location: Bemidji | I have the Cabelas Ranger Style rails on my boat and love them. |
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Posts: 3242
Location: Racine, Wi | Matt, I have the ranger rails on my boat as well. If you remember what they look like. They work great!!! |
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Location: Athens, Ohio | http://www.boatersworld.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/SearchView?st...
you'll have to pick thru about 17 pages to find the one you want. m |
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| The ranger rails look good to me in the S.S., I opted for a galvanized pipe in place of the S.S. for my rail mounts though... it's just more H.D. Either way, I'd also recommend a couple changes to make your system work better for you.
1) Put a 1" thick block of carpeted "Trex" or wood under the supports to act as an interface between the boat and rail metal. This will help to absorb the constant vibration from trolling those larger fall body baits, I used 4 big S.S. screws (1 in each corner) to secure the block to the boat before installing the rail. The block will allow more up and down movement of the Downeasters so you can stick the rods further into the water as conditions ( floating weeds) dictate. Another plus is when your casting you can tuck the rod holders under the rail out of the way better.
2) Find some rubber hose or tube (the tube I use is clear from Farm & Fleet) close to the size of your rail and use this in place of the inner tube material that come with the Downeast. The tubing just has to be "close" in diameter because it can be split and will stay in place better than the inner tube that comes with the Downeast.
Hope this helps... I like the versatility, price and function of these modified rail systems. |
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Posts: 32954
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | I'd get the bolt through rails most of the boat builders are using now (Skeeter, Tuffy, Ranger, Warrior, Yar Craft, Triton, etc). They are welded stainless, and attach with a set of stainless bolts. As an option on a boat, I think they are about $170 installed, but certainly can be purchased for less loose from Cabellas. I have the 30" set on the front of my Tuffy, and the 60" set on the rear. On my older Patriot, I just have the rear rails.
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| Good point! I have Skeeter "bolt threw" rail ends bolted directly threw the aforementioned blocks. The bottom bolt hole of the block has to be counter sunk and nut and bolt flush of course for this method to work. The boats flotation foam was problematic for me to bolt the block or rail end down, certainly bolts are best.
Nice looking boat there Steve... but... I didn't notice any rod holders...  |
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Posts: 469
Location: Downers Grove, IL | Thanks for all the input. I ordered the 43" ranger rails from cabelas tonight. Do they come with the mounting hardware???
Thanks again, thedude |
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Posts: 32954
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Notice the lack of a kicker too? Have a Mercury Pro Kicker ordered, will have her rigged for trolling before the Fall. |
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| Ahhh... I should have noticed that too eh'. A month ago I was torn between a 9.9 Merc and Yamaha T-8, both were about $3,500. retail... I went with the T-8 based on my past experience with Yam-a-hahaha.(Kidding).
One important thing I forgot to mention is that you don't want to crank the Downeasts tight to the rail. You want them tight enough so they don't move from lure vibration but can still rotate the rod up or down in a blink. A couple reasons this is important... I've had 4 rods directly behind the boat and noticed us heading into a giant patch of floating leaves... 15 seconds later all rod tips are buried in the water until we clear the flotilla. I generally like the rod tips out of the water to watch for fouled baits and crossed lines.
Also, and this is big... when retrieving the trolled bait I don't remove the rod from the holder (unless I have too) . I rotate the rod/reel to a comfortable level position and just crank in up in the holder, if there is another outside rod I'll sometime push that rod tip up to help keep the lines clear. If you troll big lipped baits this is a "must do"- easier and overall more efficiency. For you guys just getting started trolling, get in the habit of turning the clicker off and then back on every time. Rechecking the clickers after everthing is "set" is a good habit.
The only time you want "a rip" is on a fish or a snag. Rip... rip... got to go. |
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Posts: 3242
Location: Racine, Wi | Matt, it does come with mounting hardware, but go get some stainless steel screws to batten the hatches with. Not sure if you're going all the way through where you can use a bolt and nut, if not, get a self tapping stainless screw, and drill them in slooooooow so they don't break. GIve me a shout if you have some questions. I'll be fish'n. heh heh heh |
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Location: Minneapolis, MN | Jerry:
I used to keep the down east mounts loose enough to rotate them as you mentioned. The problem as I experienced with that is when you want a rod tip in the water, the pressure from the rod in the water would rotate the down east until the rod was vertical against the boat hull which would screw up my spread. Any suggestions to stop this from happening? |
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| Luke, that can be a problem and Yep I had the thing happening until I began using the full circumference heavy rubber hose from Farm & Fleet instead of those skimpy little patches of inner tube provided by Downeast. The rubber hose is not a total solution to the problem because you will still have to tighten one up here and there. Oh yeah... one trick... one of the adjustment screws is a lot easier to get to than the other on the Downeast, so I kind of over tighten the one that is hard to get to before hitting the water and "play" with the other easier to get to screw in the boat (screw in the boat... sounds kind of...) You'll notice the rod holders loosen up in the fall as it gets colder too eh'.
Unless you have a cherry boat like Steve's Tuffy, try the galvanized pipe (again from Farm & Fleet) instead of the stainless steel because it has a rougher surface for the rubber to grip to. The galvanized pipe is also considerably stronger and will not end up with egg shaped bolt holes from the constant twisting on the bolts that connect the rail to the rail end (these should be drilled and bolted threw BTW... don't even try to use the set screws that come with most). That one piece rail Steve mentioned sounds fantastic and would solve this particular problem. I'd definitely consider buying the 1 piece S.S. rail if I didn't already have this heavy duty deal in place... anyway, I hope this helps.
Email me if you have any Q's or want a picture. [email protected] |
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| For rails and Down east set-ups check my site , www.trojantackle.ca |
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| I have used the trojantackle system with other people on their boats and it was very impressive and well made! |
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